I inherited an Enviro EF4 pellet stove. I had some problems with the connector to the ignitor but fixed those, and the stove starts reliably now.
On startup, the heating element is energized and the auger feeds pellets into the burn pot. After a few minutes they will begin to smoke for 20-30 seconds then the flame appears. Once a thermostat detects 120 degrees in the exhaust, the ignitor is switched off. There also seems to be a timer in that circuit - if sufficient heat isn't detected within a certain amount of time, the stove "gives up" and shuts down. This usually happens when the stove has run dry and I refill it then try to start it. I think in this case, because the auger tube has been emptied, it takes too much time for the pellets to fill that tube and begin dropping into the burn pot. The stove will try to start and eventually give up. If I do another startup, the pellets will reach the drop and it'll start.
To prevent having to do this second start, if I know the stove has run dry, I'll toss a few pellets in the pot manually. This usually works. But today, the pellets ignited before the stove sensed heat and, even though they were burning, the stove timed out and shut down. The pellet flame disappeared and a huge amount of smoke filled the chamber.
This would be fine, except that the smoke started wafting out of the heat exchanger output area (where the hot air is blown out) which is located along the top front of the stove. And there was a lot of it. This doesn't seem right to me...I would think the heat exchanger would be designed to isolate the exhaust air space from the room air space. If that were the case, I don't see how the smoke in the chamber would be able to leak out of the hot air output and into the room. I quickly did a restart to reenergize the combustion blower, and the flame returned and stopped the smoking.
The heat exchangers in this stove are square tubes, welded into the main body of the stove. Seeing all that smoke pouring out of the hot air exhaust made me suspicious, so while the stove was running I held a CO detector right at the hot air output - nothing detected.
Could I have a broken weld somewhere, or does this make sense in some way?
Thanks for any advice.
On startup, the heating element is energized and the auger feeds pellets into the burn pot. After a few minutes they will begin to smoke for 20-30 seconds then the flame appears. Once a thermostat detects 120 degrees in the exhaust, the ignitor is switched off. There also seems to be a timer in that circuit - if sufficient heat isn't detected within a certain amount of time, the stove "gives up" and shuts down. This usually happens when the stove has run dry and I refill it then try to start it. I think in this case, because the auger tube has been emptied, it takes too much time for the pellets to fill that tube and begin dropping into the burn pot. The stove will try to start and eventually give up. If I do another startup, the pellets will reach the drop and it'll start.
To prevent having to do this second start, if I know the stove has run dry, I'll toss a few pellets in the pot manually. This usually works. But today, the pellets ignited before the stove sensed heat and, even though they were burning, the stove timed out and shut down. The pellet flame disappeared and a huge amount of smoke filled the chamber.
This would be fine, except that the smoke started wafting out of the heat exchanger output area (where the hot air is blown out) which is located along the top front of the stove. And there was a lot of it. This doesn't seem right to me...I would think the heat exchanger would be designed to isolate the exhaust air space from the room air space. If that were the case, I don't see how the smoke in the chamber would be able to leak out of the hot air output and into the room. I quickly did a restart to reenergize the combustion blower, and the flame returned and stopped the smoking.
The heat exchangers in this stove are square tubes, welded into the main body of the stove. Seeing all that smoke pouring out of the hot air exhaust made me suspicious, so while the stove was running I held a CO detector right at the hot air output - nothing detected.
Could I have a broken weld somewhere, or does this make sense in some way?
Thanks for any advice.
